It's great when you can get exactly what you want in life. Your favorite pizza place lets you choose your toppings, even if it's pineapple (we don't judge). Getting what you want shouldn't be limited to restaurants. You should also be able to get the services you want from your contractor. At J. Bryant Boyd, we think you should be able to choose, which is why we offer architect-only services that don't require you to choose us as your builder.
In this guide, we'll take a closer look at what architect-only services include and how they can help you achieve the custom home you want.
Table of Contents:
With plan-only architectural design, you hire an architect to design your home and draw the construction documents, then sign a separate construction contract when you’re ready to build. Some firms call this design-only or standalone architectural services. At J. Bryant Boyd, plan-only clients go through the same design meetings as our design-build clients, and the agreement wraps up once your plans are complete.
Under Texas law, a private single-family home is exempt from the state’s architect requirement, so hiring an architect is your decision to make. On a Hill Country lot, the slope and the limestone affect where the house sits and how the rooms are arranged, which is why many homeowners bring one in. A residential architect can also prepare your drawings for the local review steps they’ll go through before construction.
Most homeowners who choose plan-only design want to keep design and construction on separate timelines. For some, the reason is a lender that needs drawings before approving a loan, and for others, it’s a builder they’ve already hired.
You can fully design a home years before construction starts. If you bought acreage outside Georgetown and plan to build once your kids finish school, for example, you can complete the plans now and keep them ready until you’re set to break ground. Energy codes are updated periodically, so if a few years pass, have the drawings reviewed before you build.
Some clients have a contractor in the family or want to hire the builder who handled their last house. That builder can price and build your home from our drawings, and our architects can answer their questions once construction is underway.
Construction lenders typically ask for plans and specifications before they approve a loan. With a finished plan set in hand, every builder you contact prices the same house, which lets you compare their bids line by line.
Exterior plans for a home in Georgetown’s Downtown or Old Town Historic Overlay District may need historic design review before construction. Detailed elevations and material callouts help the review board understand what you’re proposing to build.
Your agreement covers the design of the house along with the construction documents your builder will use to price it and pull a permit. It also lists how many rounds of revisions are included and the fee for each phase, so read through it carefully before you sign. The full set of drawings is called a house plan, and the floor plans make up one part of it. Your builder will refer back to these sheets throughout construction.
Table 1. Drawings in a Typical Custom Home Plan Set
| Drawing | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Site plan | Where the house sits on the lot and how the driveway reaches it |
| Floor plans | Room layouts and dimensions for each level, with door and window locations |
| Exterior elevations | What each side of the house looks like, with materials and roof heights |
| Building and wall sections | How the walls and roof are assembled, including insulation |
| Roof plan | Roof slopes and drainage |
| Electrical plan | Where light fixtures and outlets go |
| Interior elevations | Cabinet and tile layouts in the kitchen and bathrooms |
| Door and window schedules | Sizes and types for every opening |
Some parts of the plan set come from outside consultants. A survey of your lot records the property lines and the slope, and we design the house around both. Because limestone and clay soils call for different foundation designs, a structural engineer evaluates your lot before the foundation is drawn. Before you sign, ask whether the survey and engineering are covered by the architect’s fee or hired separately, since that affects how much you’ll need for the design phase.
Design and permitting for a custom home typically take 4 to 6 months. Your exact timeline depends on the size of the home and the conditions on your lot. Each phase begins once you approve the one before it, so your own decisions also shape the schedule.
Each phase adds detail to the drawings, and you’ll sign off before we move to the next one.
Design and architecture fees usually make up 8 to 12% of a custom home project, which works out to $120,000 to $180,000 on a $1.5 million project. Your fee depends on the size of the home and how much detail the design requires. Many architects charge a percentage of the estimated construction cost for plan-only work, and some set a fixed fee for each phase of design. A kitchen remodel, or other limited project, is sometimes billed by the hour.
A steep or rocky lot adds site design time, and a remodel requires measured drawings of the existing house before design can begin. Additional rounds of changes after you approve a phase also add drawing hours. Ultimately, the design fee is based on the construction budget, so set a target number for construction before design begins. Fully custom construction in Central Texas typically runs $250 to $400 per square foot, which puts a 3,000-square-foot home between $750,000 and $1.2 million before land and design.
Yes, your plan-only agreement gives you the right to build the home from our drawings with the builder you choose. The agreement also spells out how the plans can be reused, so review those terms before construction starts.
Federal copyright law protects architectural works, which include the design of a house as shown in its plans. In most residential agreements, the architect keeps the copyright, and you receive a license to build the home once on your lot. Under that license, you can share the plans with builders for bids and submit them for a permit. Building the same house on a second lot, or having another designer change the drawings, requires written permission first.
If you can, bring your builder into a few design meetings. During design development, they can tell you how a framing method or a particular material affects their price, and we can adjust the drawings before they’re final. We’ll also send them drawings as the design develops, so they know the plan set well by the time they price it.
Once the plans are done, you’ll send them out for bids, and the builder you hire submits them to the city or county for a permit. Questions come up during every build, so decide ahead of time how involved you’d like our architects to be once construction starts.
If the plan reviewer asks for changes, our architects can revise the drawings and send the updated sheets to your builder. A reviewer might request an added detail on a wall section, for instance, or an updated energy calculation.
Material prices can rise between the end of design and the start of bidding. If that happens, we can revise the plans to fit your budget by simplifying a roofline or trimming square footage from a guest room or flex space. Revisions made after the construction documents are finished are usually billed as an added service.
Every plan set leaves a few details to work out on site. A window might land where a beam needs to go, or a light fixture you selected might be discontinued before it’s ordered. You can keep our architects available on an hourly basis to answer your builder’s questions and sort out these issues as they come up.
You can bring your finished plans to our construction team at any point. Because our architects and builders work in the same office, the team pricing your home can walk through the design with the people who drew it. Our portfolio includes this ranch-style home and other properties we’ve designed and built across Central Texas.
As you decide whether plan-only design fits your project, keep these points in mind:
Homeowners considering a plan-only project often ask how the drawings move from our office to a builder’s job site. These answers cover the questions that come up during a first design meeting.
Site-specific design begins once you own a lot, because we draw the house around its slope and setbacks. Conversations about your room list and the style you like can start while you’re still looking for land. We can also walk a parcel with you before you make an offer to show you where a house would sit on it.
Your agreement names who hires the surveyor and the structural engineer. The surveyor maps your property lines and grade, and the engineer reviews the soil on your lot to design the foundation. Bring up both consultants at your first meeting so your design budget includes their fees.
Yes. The construction documents include the drawings a building department reviews for a new home or remodel, and your builder submits them with the permit application. Our architects handle any design revisions the plan reviewer requests and send the updated sheets to your builder.
Your agreement lists the number of revision rounds included in each phase of design. Layout adjustments made during schematic design fall within those rounds. The agreement also explains how additional changes are billed.
Yes. You can complete your plans now and break ground once your current home sells or your construction loan is in place. If two or three years pass, schedule a code review before you build so the drawings reflect the energy code your city or county enforces at that time.
Your lot and the way you want to live in the house shape every decision in a plan-only design. If you already own the land, start with a site walk alongside an architect. If you’re still looking, you can take that walk before you make an offer and learn how the slope and views would shape a home on that parcel. Bring a few photos of homes you like to your first meeting, along with a survey of your lot if you have one.
At J. Bryant Boyd, we have designed and built custom homes across Central Texas for more than 30 years. Our architects work in the same office as our construction team, and that day-to-day contact informs the details on every plan set we draw. You can hire us for residential architecture services alone and decide on construction when you’re ready.
Connect with our team to tell us about the home you want to design.